A little cyber car show... Sporadically updated, Just A Car Geek is an old school blog that focuses on relatively inexpensive, unusual, rare and forgotten cars. Lots of opinions, links to cool and interesting sites, useless & useful trivia, cars for sale, news, a few stories and more... This is not your typical car blog...
Comments and submissions are welcomed and encouraged.

Monday, November 23, 2009

"It's not too late to buy yourself your own Christmas present". That's the first sentence in the seller's Craigslist listing. If I had the storage space this would have a big bow on it with a tag saying "Merry Christmas - To: Me, From: Me"

The more I write about the 1960s / early 1970s Lancias, the more impressed I am by them. The engineering is top notch (at times maybe a little over the top) and their styling is timeless.

This Lancia is being sold by a person who runs a very impressive repair / restoration shop. He bought this to restore for himself but, as he writes, "The usual song & dance, I have too many customer cars and I don't see finishing this one before the rains set in. ( & I don't want to leave it outdoors this winter.)"

The body on this car looks to be straight and relatively rust free (there appears to be a bit of rust along the leading edge of the hood). The interior appears to be complete, but in need of a little work. The seats may need to be recovered, but everything else looks like it could just use a good cleaning.

The engine and transmission are out of the car. The big problem here is that a number of the head bolts are frozen. The seller has used the usual methods of trying to remove them, along with some unusual, but impressive, methods. ("I'm now designing a way to harness high frequency vibration & focus it on the bolts to break loose the rust. Sounds like Flash Gordon meets Dick Tracy, but I think I'm on to something".) From what I can tell, it appears that he's made little progress and the bolts remain stuck.

Given that the seller has had little luck removing the bolts (and he appears to have some serious talent and tools), it may be worthwhile just picking up another engine and saving this one for parts or for when you have more time to figure out how to unfreeze the head bolts. (A spare Lancia V4 is never a bad thing to have.)

As I've said before, I am in no way qualified to predict the future value of automobiles. However, my gut feeling is that these cars, while they'll never be overly expensive, will appreciate in value over the next decade.

The Craigslist listing is not comprehensive, but the seller provides a link to pictures of the car. (You can find it here.) His entire website is really cool to look at, too. You can find his homepage here. Don't miss his "What's in the Shop Now" section. (On a personal note, this guy works on very impressive foreign cars, he appears to drink fine wine and plays in a band at night... At least someone is living my dream.)

Located in Berkley, CA, click here to see the Craigslist listing for this 1967 Lancia Fulvia.

That guy's website is amazing, I can't believe he has the skills to work on such a variety of complicated cars. I didn't even realize it until I was about a quarter of the way down the page - it's the same guy that was selling the white Citroen GS I wrote about last week! Can't believe it sold for just $3,850... Sounds like this guy knows his cars.

As for the Fulvia, I would go as far as saying its the most beautiful mass produced, affordable car of its time. I really can't think of anything else that looks that good over the past 50 years. High praise, for such an affordable classic, these are worth every penny.

Do you have an interesting car story? Know of an interesting car? Have an opinion? Send it to Just A Car Geek - Submissions are always welcome.If you have a problem with the link above (which happens sometimes when using Outlook), send the e-mail directly to contact(AT)justacargeek(DOT)com(use the @ sign in place of "AT")